Where is my husband?

He is shrinking right before my very eyes!!  He is getting so skinny.  I can't believe he has lost 45 pounds so far.  It is amazing.  He has dropped below 200, which was his original goal.  I think he is going to continue to lose quite a bit more, he just doesn't eat very much.

I was putting away the food after dinner the other night and realized that I have way more left-overs than I have ever had before.  We have saved money on groceries, but I lack motivation when planning meals now.  I used to cook things I knew Eddie would like.  Now I am trying to train myself that just because he isn't going to eat most of it, I CAN still cook it for the family.  He will just be eating a smaller portion and it isn't a reflection of my cooking ability. 

It has been so long since I did an update and everyone has been asking about it, so here are some current pictures of my itty-bitty husband...

Friday update - week 3

I know, it's not Friday anymore, but I had a tooth pulled and was on some pain killers and couldn't write on Friday. 

Eddie didn't lose any weight over the past week.  Well, he went down to 224.  ONE POUND.  It isn't because he is eating more food.  It isn't because he is eating bad food.  I think it is a stall because he isn't eating. His body has gone on the defensive and is holding on to everything it has because he wasn't eating for the week. 

He had a lot of set backs this week.  He threw-up a lot of the food he did try to eat.  He was very tired and just had no energy at all.  It was a rough week.  I was scared a lot of the time.  One day he could eat peanut butter, the next day he threw it up.  One day he could eat tuna, the next day it sat in his stomach like a rock and made him double over in pain.  It is very hit or miss when it comes to eating anything.  I keep trying to remind him to eat very slowly and chew chew chew his food. 

He got down 2 mini raviolis the other night and they sat pretty well.  Eddie is nauseous most of the time.  At least to me it seems like most of the time.  He said that if it weren't for the nausea, he would feel rather normal.  I hope this goes away sometime.  He told me that he found people online who had nausea for a year.  Well, that will sure make a person lose weight. 

Someone asked Eddie if he was glad he went through with the surgery.  He said he couldn't answer that just yet. I told him I didn't want to ask him that question yet until he felt totally normal again.  I don't think he can honestly answer that question until he feels better.

Hopefully that will be soon.  He has one more week of soft foods and then he can move on to any food, just in small amounts eaten very slowly.

Friday Update

A quick update. 2 weeks post-op. Another 7 pounds lost. That is 15 pounds total.
Current weight:  225
He has good days and bad days. He was able to start eating soft foods. So far he has tried tuna and found his stomach really agrees with peanut butter.
He looks so skinny to me already. He is getting around really well. We have decided to take family walks in the evenings. We have scouted out a route that is a mile long. I can't wait!!  I'm really excited about it.
Tomorrow will be a challenge for him I think. We are going to our nephews birthday party.  I know I look forward to party food. I feel so bad that he can't eat the good food we always eat at parties. But I know he will get through it.
Hang in there honey!!

Pureed Chili

Eddie went back to work yesterday and made it through the whole day.  I am sure it was tough for him, but he did it.  He didn't have any pain meds through out the day.  He did come home and take a nap though.  I was home with two sick kids and exhausted from taking care of everyone, but I am so happy to do it. 

I had made a whole pot of chili and had it slow cooking all day so the house smelled wonderful when Eddie came in the door.  He misses eating so much, it is starting to get to him.  I reminded him that he is on doctors orders to be on a liquid diet for the next week still and then he can move on to "mushies" (soft foods) for two weeks. 

I had been pureeing vegetable soup for him to eat, but he was getting bored with that so I pureed up some chili for him.  He was so excited about it, but it didn't really sit well.  So I let him have a treat.  He got a Pedialite Popsicle and then a bowl of light vanilla ice cream.  It is the first thing he has eaten with a spoon in almost two weeks. 

I can't wait for next week when I can make him some kick ass mashed potatoes. 

There were still some opened bags of chips in the house from before the surgery and I have been trying to eat them so they are gone.  I didn't want to throw them away because that just felt wasteful and Goodwill wasn't going to take opened bags of chips that were half eaten.  But then I got to thinking...Why would I put bad food in my body just to get rid of it when we are trying to change our eating habits?  So, I threw them away.  After I finished off the bag of Cheetos, of course.  Don't you know it is illegal to throw Cheetos away?

Yesterday was also the first day Jordan has not asked for McDonalds, but he was also throwing up.  I think our bodies are still going through a transition with out all the fast food.  It will get better...eventually.

Oh, I haven't lost an ounce of weight so far.  I guess fast food wasn't what was making me fat. Until I lose 8 pants sizes, it is going to be "pregnancy weight", even though Katie turns 2 in a few days.

Lawnmower man

I took Eddie to the doctor today to have his drainage tube removed.  I didn't warn him how much it might hurt.  Jeff, my sisters boyfriend, told me was going to hurt like hell.  Jeff was right when he said the surgery would hurt like hell and he was right when he said it would take longer then a few days to recover.  So I didn't want Eddie to be too worked up over how much it might hurt to have that tube ripped out of him.

When I was in high school, I had a chest tube for a few days and when they went to remove it, they didn't warn my mom or me that it was about to happen.  They just put one hand on my side and yanked on that tube like they were starting a lawn mower.  They did pretty much the same thing to Eddie.

I knew it was coming and I was doubled over and had my hands over my eyes.  Eddie let out a yell so loud and so long I thought maybe the tube was wrapped around his intestines.  Eddie wasn't prepared.  That was my fault.  But I don't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.  Oh well.  It's over with.

He doesn't feel any better yet.  He may actually feel a bit worse.  I am really hoping that tomorrow he will feel better now that the tube is gone.  I don't know.  He is beginning to think he is going to feel this way all the time and I know that is not the case.  He just has to give it time for the healing process to finish.

Warm liquids still feel good to Eddie and he has discovered smoothies from Juice It Up work wonders for him.  The Isopure protein drinks are NASTY!!!  The other protein shakes are not that great, but he does his best to drink them down.  He is still on a liquid diet.  Next week we may start pureeing some foods for him to eat instead of just soup all the time.  He wants to get meatballs and spaghetti sauce and puree those.  My answer to that is, "We'll see."  And we all know what it means when a mom gives that answer...

Friday update

Eddie may not look to happy in this picture compared to the last ones, but he is still in quite a bit of pain. We are going to see the doc today for a follow up and to get his drainage tube removed.

Eddie has lost 8 pounds so far. I can see the difference in his face.

We will give more of an update after the doctor appointment today.

The Backlash

I went to work yesterday while Eddie stayed home to rest and recover.  We had a bit of a snafu during the day.  Eddie called me and asked if I knew the location of his wallet.  It is probably the norm in all families that everyone ask mom where there stuff is.  My mom explains this phenomenon in the following way:  A woman's uterus becomes a tracking device for everyone's stuff. 

As it turned out, I happened to know where the wallet was, because it was in my purse.  I had taken it with me to pick up Eddie's prescriptions.  He was so pissed at me!!  He wanted to go to the store to see how he would feel driving since he planned on going to work today.  I got mad right back because he is not supposed to be driving for the first week.  His stomach and his abdominal muscles need to heal.  I ended up hanging up on him.

So I sent him an email to explain that he needs to concentrate on healing so he doesn't end up getting injured or popping a staple and being laid up for even longer.  I didn't hear from him the rest of the day.

When I got home, he came up to me and told me he got my email, that he was sorry and that he called in sick to work so he could rest more.  I was so relieved!!!  

I found out that he isn't trying to be macho, he actually feels like he is being a burden.  I explained that he is in no way a burden.  I knew what his recovery would be like for me and I have no problem taking care of him and taking care of the kids while he heals.  It is important to me that he takes it easy and gets better.  This recovery time is in no way a burden to me at all. 

I also think the frustration he felt was from being cooped up in the house and not eating actual food.  I know there will be more outbursts in the following weeks, but I am prepared for them.  It's just like when my hormones were regulating after I gave birth. 

So I made him some cream of chicken soup and strained out all of the chicken chunks and served him his 3 oz dinner.

But Eddie isn't the only one with some backlash from this.  Jordan (12) met me at the door after work with bright eyes and a very hungry look on his face.  He looked down at my hands, saw that they were void of any fast food bags, threw his hands up in the air and kind of made a frustrated grunting noise.  I quickly said I would start making dinner right away.  He snidely responded with, "Can't you just go pick something up?"

NO!  No I can not!  We aren't eating fast food for dinner.  I cooked up some dirty rice and beans, which no one really ate and everyone complained about.  Katie threw it on the floor in her protest.  They all went to bed a little hungry.  They will learn that if they want to eat, they will eat what I cook. (Katie did wake up at 4 am screaming for crackers.)

Jordan has been searching the cupboards for the junk we used to have on hand.  Again, that was only met with frustration. 

He might be thinking he can call child protective services on me for starving my kids, but the lack of junk food in our house might just get me that award yet...

His pain is our gain

The healing process is turning out to be a little more painful than Eddie had expected.  I was home with him all day yesterday, willing to wait on him hand-and-foot.  He really should have taken advantage of that because it doesn't come around very often.  He is trying to be manly and strong by trying to do things on his own, but he is really just delaying his recovery (of course, that is just my professional medical opinion).

I wanted him to rest as much as possible yesterday because today I am back at work.  He has to fend for himself today.  He is also going to attempt to go back to work tomorrow, although he isn't supposed to drive for a week and is supposed to rest for 2 weeks.  MEN!

But, our whole family is reaping the benefits of this surgery.  Eddie is not be able to eat anything that can't go through a straw for 4 weeks so the rest of us are showing our support in our eating habits also.  Eddie claims that I am the spiritual leader of our family and he is the food consumption leader.  We used to eat fast food SEVERAL times a week.  When I say several, I mean at least 5 times a week.  Eddie may have eaten fast food more than that because he would often get Del Taco for breakfast. 

I can very proudly say that none of us has had fast food for a whole week.  I thought I had a touch of the stomach flu yesterday, but it may have just been my system going through withdrawal.  Eddie and I used to drink soda like it was the only source of hydration available, but he hasn't had a soda in a whole week.  I have had maybe 3 sodas.  I won't give up my morning coffee though!!!!

Eddie drank protein shakes and chicken broth yesterday.  The warm broth makes him feel much better.  Anything cold seems to upset his stomach more, but he needs that protein drink and it is nasty if it is warm.  He was having some cramping and the doctor suggested warm liquids and it really did help. 

I have to empty Eddie's drainage tube twice a day.  It doesn't bother me until I have to "milk" it (squeeze the tube all the way down to the reservoir).  I tend to gag a little when I have to squeeze out a clot.  I can handle bodily fluids, but not chunks or clots.  I remember Jordan had a very bad bloody nose once and I was totally fine with it until he pulled out a GIANT clot.  Then I lost it.

So Eddie's pain from going through this surgery is good for our whole family.  When I have to decide what is for dinner, I no longer think of which drive thru I want to hit.  Instead, I get out the cookbooks and find something to cook.  Fast food just doesn't even seem like an option anymore.  I just hope my body can adjust to the decrease in grease, calories, fat, sugar and some other nasty unmentionables that are sometimes found in fast food.  Now if someone spits in my food, it will have come from a child who is upset that mommy isn't letting them eat chicken nuggets for the 4th day in a row.  No joke, Katie's first 2 word phrase was "french fries".  Still wondering if I am mother of the year yet...

I want to go home

Well, today isn't going as planned. I was so excited this morning to get to the hospital and take Eddie home. But when I arrived he said he isn't being released just yet. His blood pressure is up, his pulse is up and he had a low grade fever earlier. So the doctor wants some lab work done and wants to see him before he can be released. Unfortunately, the doctor won't be coming around until later today.

Eddie attempted to drink some smoothie and a bite of jello. He kept it all down but it was very painful. He has really bad acid reflux and is on Zantac for it. When he drinks the Zantac he is in tremendous pain. I hate seeing him like this. 

He has been off of the morphine since last night and trying to just get through the pain with out anything. Crazy!  He finally asked for something around 10:45 am. He is resting peacefully again.

I hope I get to take him home tonight so he can be more comfy. The kids miss him and I am sure aunt Glo is ready for a break from them. She is my hero this weekend!!

The day after surgery

When I arrived at the hospital this morning Eddie wasn't in his room. You never want to visit someone in the hospital and find the room empty. In the movies that means bad news. But thankfully, Eddie was just down in radiology having an upper GI series done so they could see if his new banana shaped stomach is leaking. If it isnt , he will get to start drinking small (2 oz at a time) amounts of clear liquids.  I hear this is when the vomiting will start. Oh joy!!

He is moving around a lot better today but still in a great amount of pain. He says everyone online lied about the pain. Props to Jeff and Gloria for telling him it would hurt like hell (they have both had portions of their bowels removed due to Crohn's disease). 

Eddie just wants to get some good sleep but these darned attentive nurses keep waking him to check his vitals. How dare they!  Once he gets home and the kids are are in bed, he can get some sleep.

I think I have lost some weight already. I have been trying to be supportive and not eat in front of Eddie. When he was on his pre-op liquid diet, I did the same. When I do eat I am trying to eat healthier. Our whole family needs to kick the fast food habit and start eating better and our kids aren't going to do it unless we do it. Wish us luck!!

Surgery day

We got up early this morning and headed to Chapman medical center in Orange. Eddie checked in and was taken to pre-op for a bazillion questions.

The nurse told him, "Now you are going to get the same questions over & over.  It doesn't mean we aren't listening or that we don't know why you are here. It just means we are making sure we have the correct information"

Eddie was really nervous. Then the nurse gave him something to calm the nerves. When the doctor came in a few minutes later he asked Eddie, "Are you on any medications?"  Eddie's answer, "Yah. The nurse just gave me a shot of tequila". Then the doctor asked Eddie, "Why are you here?"  I thought Eddie's eyes were gonna pop out of his head and he would run out of the hospital leaving behind a cartoon dust trail. I had to remind him that he would be asked the same questions over and over.

They wheeled him away a few minutes later. I can't wait for the next 2 hours to be over with.

I am hopefully attaching a before surgery picture. This was taken yesterday May 12th, 2011.

Pre-Op, Day 1

Eddie's instructions for the day are as follows:

Eat breakfast.
No more "food" until well after surgery.
Clear liquids only until Midnight tomorrow (broth, water, Crystal Light, but nothing red)
As soon as he gets home from work, he has to drink a bottle of Magnesium Citrate followed by 2 glasses of water.
NOTHING after midnight Thursday. 


Surgery Friday morning.

Since he won't be eating any BIG meals ever again, we went to Disneyland yesterday to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary and ate dinner at the Blue Bayou restaurant.  We will be spending the night at my sisters house Thursday night since we have to be at the hospital at 5:30 am Friday. 

I'm getting nervous.  Eddie has been nervous for quite a while, but he is afraid if he doesn't do this then he won't be around for our kids when they are older. 

This evening he will be working on cleaning out system.  I may have to stop and get some really soft toilet paper for him to make it through the evening.  

The sleeve is not just a tattoo anymore

When Eddie went to the informational meeting at Sharp, they talked about all the different types of weight loss surgeries available.  He came away from that meeting talking about "the sleeve".  I had never heard of it before and had no idea what he was talking about.  He calls it the sleeve, but it's also called gastric sleeve or verticle sleeve gastrectomy.

Eddie explained that a surgeon will remove approximately 60 to 80% of the stomach leaving a small tube, or "sleeve" that extends from the natural stomach opening to the natural stomach outlet. The procedure helps to limit eating and control hunger by removing the part of the stomach that produces the hunger-stimulating hormone Ghrelin.

It is not gastric by-pass surgery which cuts the stomach outlet and reattaches it to a different part of the small intestine.  All of the food will still go through the whole digestive system.  Eddie was told that the long term complications of this procedure are fewer compared to the Lap Band procedure.  He started researching the sleeve procedure on-line and looking for forums and blogs from people who have the sleeve.

He was finding that most everyone is very happy with the procedure and that a lot of them had the Lap Band and had a complication with it, had it removed and then got the sleeve.  The more he researched it, the more he felt he needed to switch his plan and get the sleeve rather than the Lap Band.

We met with his surgeon and talked about our feelings of switching to the sleeve and the surgeon was very encouraging.  He has preformed the procedure many times and is confident that it will really help Eddie reach his weight loss goal.  The doctor takes many precautions when he does the sleeve gastrectomy that made Eddie feel more confident. 

So we set up a surgery date and had some pre-op work done.  Eddie is scheduled to go to the hospital this Friday, May 13th.  He has to start his prep on Wednesday.  We will have breakfast that morning and then he has to drink some stuff that will help flush out his system and he can only have clear liquids after that until Thursday night, when he will stop eating until after his surgery. 

He will stay in the hospital for 2 nights and come home on Sunday.  He is getting nervous and scared.  I am trying to be as supportive as I can be, but I am scared also.  This is life altering.  I have watched some video blogs from people who have had the procedure and you can watch the weight come off of them.  They are all loving it.  It is a tough recovery and a huge adjustment, but this is what my husband has set his mind to and he can be stubborn when he wants.

Wednesday we will start tracking his weight and keep everyone posted on how everything is coming along.

Another day, another doctor

Eddie started scouring the internet looking for another doctor to perform his Lap Band surgery. He was searching all of Southern California, but was having trouble finding a doctor who would do it with out charging an “administrative fee”. This is the craziest thing I have ever heard of a doctor charging. He was finding that this fee was ranging anywhere from $1500 to $3000. It isn’t something that insurance would cover. I don’t exactly know what it was supposed to cover, but it doesn’t sound ethical to me.

Eddie decided to try Sharp again. Last time they wanted him to go through 6 months of medically supervised dieting, with their food, before they would do anything else. Now he just had to go to an informational meeting, fill out some paperwork and get the process started.

Since the last time he had gone to Sharp, the FDA had dropped the requirements for weight loss surgery. It used to be that you had to have a BMI of 30 AND some other weight related problem, such as Sleep Apnea or Diabetes OR have a BMI of 35+ without any other problems. NOW you only have to have a BMI of 30+ in order to qualify for surgery. Any way you look at it, Eddie qualified. I think the FDA dropping the qualifications has pushed Sharp to lower their requirements also. Just my opinion though.

Even though Eddie attended the meeting at Sharp and he knew he trusted Sharp doctors and hospitals with his life, he was still searching. He ended up finding a place in Tustin with a doctor who has a great resume and background. So in early March 2011 he started the process of having his insurance approval switched over to this new doctor.

But something had been eating at Eddie ever since he went to the informational meeting at Sharp. Did he really want the Lap Band?????

Hells to the NO!!!!

Eddie and I talked about going through this 1-800-GET-THIN place. I was not thrilled about it. It gave me a bad feeling. But he started the process anyway to see how far he could get. The first thing he did was go to a medical facility and have some blood work done and an endoscopy. On our way there though, we went to his primary care doctor and had a full physical. This may seem strange, but the physical had been scheduled months before and I wanted his current physical condition in his medical record.

We got the blood test results back from the primary doc a few days later. Blood sugar was normal. Cholesteral and triglycerides high.

Eddie went back to the homeless shelter, I mean, 1-800 offices, to do an overnight sleep study to see if he had sleep apnea. I had suspected for quite a while that he did suffer from apnea. He does the strangest things in the middle of the night and he is never fully rested in the mornings.

Now that all the testing was done, all we had to do was wait to hear back from the 1-800 people and schedule surgery. But we didn't hear back from them for quite a while. Eddie called them almost every day for a month and wasn't able to speak to anyone.

Eddie actually got a call from our insurance provider to offer him support as he goes through this surgery and transition. She asked Eddie if the doctor had explained to him how to handle his diabetes. WAIT! WHAT?????? Eddie doesn't have diabetes. The insurance person said the report the doctor sent over showed that he had diabetes and sleep apnea. This was the first we had heard any of this. We knew for sure his blood sugar was fine when he did the blood tests. The insurance person also asked if he had been fitted for his CPAP (sleep apnea machine). NOPE!!!!! We hadn't heard anything about the results from the sleep study.

So now we started to really think about this 1-800 place more and more. The surgery was to be done at a surgical center in either Beverly Hills or Doheny. Eddie got a call with the surgeon and the location and date. So Eddie started researching this doctor. Come to find out he had just lost a LapBand patient on the table that week. He decided right then and there that he was NOT having this doctor work on him. In his research he found the doctor had been in several different states. It just didn't feel right.

Then we started researching more about the 1-800 people. It made us sick to find out that 1-800-GET-THIN is their 3rd name so far. They keep getting sued and just changing their name. The "surgical center" in Beverly Hills has also changed it's name 3 times because they keep getting shut down, yet they are still owned by the same 2 people. I would call them doctors, but they have BOTH had their medical licenses revoked. These two men are the ones who own 1-800-GET-THIN. (Which has now been asked by the makers of LapBand to quit using the words "LapBand" in all of their advertising. They are giving LapBand a bad name.)

We also started to find reviews from other people who have gone through the 1-800 people. The same story as ours. They had a lot of tests run, insurance was charged up the wazoo for the tests and then you can't get in touch with anyone at the 1-800 center anymore.

Eddie was able to convince some girl, probably a newby, to fax him his blood test results from the testing they did. His blood sugar levels were normal. They just falsified the report that they sent to the insurance company.

About 5 months passed and all of a sudden Eddie gets a call from someone with his sleep apnea results. He has moderate to sever sleep apnea. His airway closes an average of 22.5 times per hour and he had 2 hours where his airway closed 35 times each hour. Someone was out to our house the next week with a CPAP machine. The first night he used it and woke up rather refreshed the next day.

It has been 6 months since the 1-800 debacle. Needless to say, he didn't get surgery through them. During those 6 months though, he was back to researching and finding someone else to the LapBand from. Insurance told him that since he was already approved, he just needed to find a different doctor and have his authorization switched over to the new doctor.

Here we go again...

The One

After we moved to our new home, Eddie started up the search again for a procedure that would best fit him. He sat me down one night and proclaimed that he found "the one"! 

He told me there was this new procedure called LapBand. It was supposed to be minimally invasive, out patient surgery, and REVERSABLE.  He knew this was what he wanted to do.

At the time every billboard in southern California and every commercial break on the radio was for 1-800-GET-THIN.  They were really pushing the LapBand. 

He talked about the LapBand for months, but it was all talk. Until one day a year later he told me he had an appointment with the 1-800 people. I thought, "Ok, I'm going with you and checking these people out."

I'm so glad I went. This place was not at all what I expected. It was an office from the early 1970s. We got there and they put us in a room that had two rows of chairs and a bed. Not a hospital bed or a gurney. A real queen size bed with sheets and blanket.  My first thought was to run if this is where they were going to do the surgery. No freakin way was I going to support my husband going under the knife in this crap hole.

At one point some crazy skinny lady came in and told us how happy she is with the LapBand and she lost 150 pounds and life is wonderful.

We were eventually taken in to a room that had an exam table and another bed. What was up with the beds?  does this place become a homeless shelter at night?

A doctor (I'm not so sure he really was one) came in and explained how the LapBand procedure worked. I asked questions about diet and also about complications. He seemed completely annoyed by my questions.
I was so glad to get out of that place. We were going to talk about things and see what to do next.

Oh and I found out the beds were for sleep apnea testing.  (And homeless people when they don't have many patients)

Just kidding about the homeless people. 

The search...

Eddie started looking at the different types of surgeries he could get. He was first thinking about just the regular old gastirc bypass. At the time, that was what was most popular and all we had heard of really. So we went to his primary care doctor to get a referral to a gastroenterologist.

His primary doctor wasn't really into the idea of surgery. He had said he had a few patients who had done the bypass and were miserable. This didn't discourage Eddie though, he had his mind set that he wanted to get this done and he was moving on to the next step. A consultation with a gastro doc.

At his visit with the gastro, he was told that the doc wouldn't preform the surgery unless Eddie went through 6 months of medically supervised dieting through the Sharp weightloss program. (Hmmmm...through their own program huh?) He knew he wanted this done and he was willing to do what he had to do to get it done. He went to the weightloss meetings and found out he needed to buy the Sharp weightloss food. At $300 per week. RIGHT!!!! Because so many people can afford to spend $1200 a month on food for ONE PERSON. That just wasn't going to happen.

After this discouraging turn of events, Eddie put the idea of weight loss surgery on the back burner for a while. We were in the middle of trying to short-sale our home and find a rental. But I always knew this was in the back of his mind while we were dealing with other things in our life and that the search would start up again when our life settled down a little more.

In the beginning....

I love my husband dearly and I think he is perfect in every way!! He has been talking about doing something about his weight for as long as we have been together. The first time I heard him mention doing anything was when we were first dating back in 2004, but he didn't start doing anything at the time. He had actually mentioned at the time getting LIPOSUCTION. I was scared he was serious and would start researching it. I have learned that once he starts researching something he wants, it is only a matter of time before he gets it.

Eddie has decided to get surgery to lose weight. I want to document our journey with this blog and get some pictures of his progress so he can look back and see how far he has come. (With Eddie's approval, of course. I better go ask him if I can do this...)

It's no secret that Eddie and I have horrible eating habits. If you know me then you know about my "-itos diet"' Doritos, Fritos, Burritos, Taquitos, Cheetos. Tonight I actually contemplated having squirt cheese and crackrs for dinner.

I know I am an enabler in Eddies eating habits. I started cooking more meals when the kids came along. I challenged us both to go a whole week with out any fast food AND with out any Coke. WE DID IT!! After that he switched to drinking Diet Coke and hasn't had regular Coke for a year and half. We did go back to fast food, but I try to cook most of our meals.

I have weight to lose as well. I just don't have the drive to do anything, yet. I did buy a treadmill though. ;-)

A few years ago I made Eddie get a physical. He was told that he needed to lose weight. It wasn't a matter of IF he might get diabetes, but WHEN he will get it. He has had high cholesterol for quite a while. He has had some blood pressure problems lately too.

He loves his children and wants to lose the weight to be around for them for MANY MANY years to come. So....

He has decided to have surgery to lose the weight.

The search for which type of surgery is best was about to start. When my husband researches something, he goes all out. He reads every online post he can find. He researches the locations, the doctors, the procedures, the past patients, everything he can get his eyes on. This would mean several hours every night on the computer for him and hours of me having power over the remote control. Gossip Girl, here I come...